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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22523629">Spoils of Conquest</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meloncholor/pseuds/Meloncholor'>Meloncholor</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Valentine's Month [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Outer Worlds (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adrenaline, Battle Lust I guess, M/M, Pre-Slash, Rough Kissing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 11:33:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,752</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22523629</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meloncholor/pseuds/Meloncholor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sawyer just wants Max and Felix to take it easy on one another.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Maximillian DeSoto/Felix Millstone</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Valentine's Month [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618999</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Spoils of Conquest</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>Maximillian Desoto is well-read, roguishly handsome, and devoted to his faith. An exemplary icon of what a Vicar should aspire to. Excluding his habit of enjoying the ‘rougher’ end of radicalization. It was the tag that marked had him during his seminary days; the tossball player who had broken four people’s noses, the boy in the library who had gotten into a fight over ‘loud readers’ at least twice, and that poor boy who got an elbow to his nose after an argument about physics. And in prison, it only exacerbated his appeal to the other inmates. The adrenaline was the only thing keeping him alive. It was the concept, the implementation, the execution that sent him into a flurry of white-hot emotion that he couldn’t get any other way. In the Captain’s company, his image was strikingly different.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The others, he could surmise, just saw him as the stuffy clergymen that he had presented himself to be. Clean cut, straightforward, and strict. Captain Sawyer often consulted him first on matters with the crew. He was fond of being their unit’s voice of reason, their mentoring figure. It was a relief they were so unlike the bumbling simpletons of Edgewater. But beneath his very thin veneer of calm thrummed a heart that beats for bloodshed.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>…Max was sure of what the historian would say of him when this was all over. It was much better to picture than whatever Sawyer was briefing them on. They were in their impromptu control room: He, Nyoka and the Captain. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Even with his rather uptight persona, the Captain understood that he had a good handle on himself when things get rough on a mission.</span>
  </em>
  <span> A probable footnote, he thinks. He wasn’t fully paying attention, but he was asked to participate in these little ‘meetings’ more and more these days.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This particular canid we’ve been asked to catch is apparently the size and weight of a raptidon and destroying the local wildlife. Not sure why, but the doctor wants us to bring it to his lab minimally harmed so that he can do an autopsy and find out what’s going on with its growth. Says he’s gonna pay well for it.” the Captain mechanically reads off the little note that she made, and then tosses it onto the table for other two to see. “Max, you and Felix will be coming with me on this one. Nyoka I want you to set up a forward camp with Ellie in case anything goes horribly wrong. Parvati and Sam will stay here in the event we need an emergency exit. I heard this thing had a run-in with a heavily armored guard and fucked up his suit so bad it’s unusable. No hero shit. Capiche?” Her heavy brow furrows and Max can tell it's mostly for him. It’s not the first time he’s been on a high-profile mission with Felix, and he can’t remember the last time Felix didn’t ruin, destroy, or kill something important that the other two had to fix. But Sawyer had a soft spot for him, and Max guessed that was enough for him to shut up about his protests.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right, and I’m assuming you’re gonna tell me where this forward camp is gonna be?” Nyoka folds her arms and leans back against the far wall, trying to hide the fact that she’s swaying. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sawyer smiles. “It won’t be that long until you’re sober,” She points with her thumb back towards the bedrooms “I’d rather you didn’t forget, I’ll tell you tomorrow.” Nyoka scoffs and stands up, stumbling off towards her room, leaving behind the captain and Max. When the other woman is gone, Sawyer turns to him with a stunning glare. “Take it easy on Felix.” She says flatly and stands up without waiting for an answer. “I know you don’t always agree, but he’s one hell of a hitter. Just don’t be a dick.” Max just rolls his eyes as she saunters out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>-0-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They leave from Nyoka’s forward camp at around midday. Or what would probably constitute midday in Edgewater, Max isn’t really sure of the time-scaling on this planet. They were marching across a uniform grassy landscape, littered with the occasional boulder. It had probably been a few miles of unchanged land that they were passing through, but nowhere seemed fit to hide a canid the size of a raptidon. It hasn’t even been an hour since the camp had disappeared on the horizon, and Felix is already managing to get on his nerves. Sawyer and Max were marching side by side, while the young man jogged behind, caught up in his own child-like fascination of anything that wasn’t the metal hull of a ship. But, of course, that doesn’t prevent him from being a nuisance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So uh Vic,” He starts and when the nickname rolls off the other man’s tongue Max’s whole body pulses with rage. But one dagger-filled aside from Sawyer has him biting his tongue.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, Felix?” He grinds out between his teeth with an air of fake professionalism. And the younger man just preens like a fledgling crow squawking safely from its mother’s nest. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Got a question for you.” He says, catching up to the other man so that they were almost shoulder to shoulder. He leans in just to add the asinine edge to this already dull conversation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can assure you I’m jittery with anticipation,” Max grumbles. “Go on”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Could the Architect make a boarst pocket so big even </span>
  <em>
    <span>he</span>
  </em>
  <span> couldn’t eat it?” He says like he'd been concocting it for hours. Which is no doubt the case. Sawyer snorts and jogs in front of them, leaving the vicar to his fate. Max groans. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Son, the existence of the ‘Grand Architect’ as a personal and real deity is a fundamental misunderstanding of OSI Theology,” The older man barks, Sawyer be damned. He takes another breath trying to will the ever-patient spirit of his mother forth, as educating the foolish was one of her favorite tenets. Rather than berate him, he continued with a stern and hopeful voice. “‘The Architect’ is largely metaphorical, you understand?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Felix just sneers. “Uh-huh, keep talking Vic. I know when I got you beat.” he laughs that insipid laugh of his and Max doesn’t know if he can quell the fire bubbling through his veins for however long it was going to take them to kill this forsaken creature.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Max makes a point to avoid so much as eye contact with the young man for the rest of the time they spent marching. The rolling waves of mud-green grass gave way to a rocky desert-like environment and soon large spires of stone grew to twice the size of the adventurers. And they were staggering over the hills of jagged rocks, as the unease of a rough terrain sets in. Sawyer is a bit more experienced as she crosses over the fields full of rocks and debris, her footsteps barely registering as sound. Max was a bit less adept at navigating the terrain, but as long as he stayed within arms-length of her, he could at least keep up. And Felix, sweet Felix was cheerfully tumbling across the land, knocking over any and all rocks that dared cross his path as he barreled towards the captain. Any animal for miles would be alerted to their presence and Max was concerned that they’d get eaten by something far worse than the large canid before they even made it to their nest. Sawyer didn’t seem to mind, and she continued to shout bits of their conversation back to him, keeping him included despite the distance between them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sky started to bloom a wonderful shade of orange as they finally reached a ridge, with large brown rocks jutting over a small valley. “This is close enough.” Sawyer stops in a crevice between two spires, pulling her pistol from its holster on her side, checking the ammunition and pulling her visor down. “Weapons at the ready boys, it could be anywhere. And we’re gonna wait for it.” Felix jogs up behind them a little too late, but just in time to see the vicar pull out his shotgun and pull down his own visor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, uh, boss?” Felix asks, breathless. “What do you think canids that size eat?” Sawyer just shrugged her shoulders and climbed up to perch on a large boulder, eyes trained on the valley below.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nothing good,” She whispers. And he doesn’t ask any questions after that. Either because he knew she was busy or because Felix took in her words like his gospel, and that one sentence could give him food for thought for a while. Felix settled for searching their impromptu camp, wandering the premises in curious circles. Max patrolled the other side of camp, taking his time to take in the landscape and enjoy the scenery. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The longer they stake out the territory, the darker the sky gets. Fog starts to settle across the ground, obscuring what little they could make out of the land. Sawyer stays perched on her boulder, occasionally taking out her binoculars to scan the skyline and harrumph loud enough for the other two to hear. The sky was a beautiful shade of purple, but the less they could see the closer they drew together. Until Felix was sitting up against the boulder the captain had been sitting on, while Max paced back and forth in front of them, his fingers twitching eagerly on the trigger of his shotgun.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Stars began to spackle the sky above them and Max was tossing himself back and forth across their now tiny camp, treating every shadow like a predator lurking in the dark. The young man hand long removed his helmet and he kept staring up at the sky. “Hey uh, Vic?” He chimes and Max has to resist the urge to have a ‘hunting accident’ then and there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But the Vicar sighs and squares his shoulders, “Yes, Felix?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How, do uh, the moons get like that?” He pointed up towards the sky, where the planet’s two concentric moons were lilting across the sky side by side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The question hit him with genuine surprise. And he had to admit, he was a little excited to answer it. Felix was looking at him with genuine, innocent curiosity and Max couldn’t feel any general annoyance towards it. That and it had felt like hours since anyone had said anything. “Well,” he starts as he turns up to look back at the moons. “It is possible that one of those moons crashed into the other during this planet’s formation, and it just stayed in its orbit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, would planet’s like, fight each other?” He says completely unhindered by his lack of understanding. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, no the planet’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>gravity</span>
  </em>
  <span> would pull them into one another.” Max corrects sharply, but his crew member's voice doesn’t change.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like the stuff that the crew’s gotta fix all the time on the Groundbreaker?” he says with a quirk in his voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Exactly,” Max says smugly. And when he looks back Felix is staring at him. It’s softer than his usual scowl, and if Maximillian were the sappy type, he would say it was wonder. There’s a definite pause, but it’s ended by Felix softly whispering “Wow…” into the night air. And Max feels a real sense of satisfaction from it. He drank in the second-hand adoration for all i was worth. And when Felix looked back up to re-inspect the sky, Max could feel the craving for it. But of course, the moment is ruined by the young man immediately losing his focus. “Any sign of that overgrown sprat yet?” Felix yawned, looking up to Sawyer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, Felix, I’m gonna tell Nyoka to get the beds at the forward camp ready.” She stands up and takes another long look at the foggy landscape, resting her hands on her hips. With a dissatisfied sigh, she hops back down next to Felix and holsters her pistol with a flourish. “Sorry for the lack of progress boys, let’s just call it a night.” She commands and starts her march back in the direction they entered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She keeps on her visor, turning on the night-vision capabilities as she takes the lead. “Stay close, this pace gets a bit rowdy at night.” She squares her shoulders and makes a pointed look at Felix. “No one gets left behind.” Her earth accent is palpable as she commands and the younger man just nods dumbly. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s silent as they make their procession back towards Nyoka. They walked single file, with Max taking up the rear. As he preferred it. And maybe that ‘charm’ the captain had told him Felix possessed was finally getting to him. He was a bit more aware of the way Felix seemed to take in the world, and the unbridled curiosity was infectious. Max found himself watching the man’s every move, and as they continued Felix would ask more questions. And every careful furrow of the young man’s brows and twitch of his lips in an inspired grin just made the Vicar crave another. Sawyer is oddly quiet as they proceed, but maybe it was just because the two were chatting so much. Felix was curious about stars and galaxies and ‘how much water could there </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> be?’ and Max was happy to answer and get that tiny hitch in the young man’s voice when he’s finally made a breakthrough. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But with every step they make, the fog gets thicker. Max is finding it more and more strange that Sawyer hasn’t joined in, but then he notices how dark it’s gotten around them. He can still feel the swirling heat of the fog in the air, but something is off. The humidity makes them steal gulps full of air as they climb over stones as the heat starts to build up in the heavy-duty suits they were wearing. Max and Felix’s conversation began to dry out with the landscape as they continued, fizzling away completely as Sawyer refused to speak. Her hand drifted over her pistol as her head whipped in the direction of any errant shadow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Something wrong, Captain?” Max presses, mirroring her general unease. The air is still around them when she stops. Not even the rustling of wind could be heard tumbling over the hills. Her hand goes to her plasma knife on her other hip. And as soon as it registers that she’s not moving, the other two stop on a dime. Her unease is palpable as the red glow of the plasma knife ignites her worried face. She uses it as a torch, swinging it back and forth over her field of view. She’s sniffing the air occasionally and wrinkling her face. The other two instinctively grab hold of their guns and following her gaze as it searches the immediate area. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t make any sudden moves.” She whispers, and no sooner do the words creep from her lips do they smell it. A gut-wrenching miasma permeates the air, a horrid mixture of sulfur and rotting carrion. It sends Max into a panic, his eyes darted from side to side, trying to get a read on where the smell was coming from. His hand was firm on his shotgun, ready to shoot at the first glimpse.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Felix sees it before he does, and reacts before either him or the Captain could tell him not to. “Holy fucking shit!” All eyes are fixated on where the barrel of his assault rifle was pointing, its bright red laser sight trembling on violet, scaly skin. A creature, masked by the fog, that was twice and tall and twice as wide as one of them was lumbering towards Felix with the practiced poise of a skilled predator. It made no moves to conceal its pursuit, its confident gait striking true fear into the three of them. Two slit yellow eyes were trained on its prey, and they had no choice other than to attack first.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Felix get down!” Sawyer shouts. It’s too late. He’s firing explosive rounds into the wide expanse of its chest as it started to gain speed, the laser rounds firing off uselessly in bursts of dark clouds of smoke. Just as it breaks through the barrier of visibility to pounce the echo of Max’s shotgun goes off, sending the creature reeling off its course and away from Felix.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She said </span>
  <em>
    <span>get down </span>
  </em>
  <span>Felix!” The older man shouts and without the shock from his features fading, his crewmate dives for the nearest cover. Sawyer is already behind a rock, raining rounds at the canid from a safe distance. Covering for them both. Felix is still much too close, and in his attempt to save his teammate, Max was the one left out in the open. The creature is delirious as it struggles to stand back up, but it’s hard to make out the extent of its injuries in the darkness and fog. He scurries behind his own boulder just as the creature starts to stand. He’s rushing in his head, first blood jitters flowing in his veins and he’s ready for it. The canid growls low and loud in its throat and Max knows it’s not happy. And the first thing it’s going to take its unhappiness out on is Felix. Shit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sawyer doesn’t have enough firepower on her to kill it in time before it gets to him, which leaves the task of saving the runt to him, again. He takes a breath to steady himself and nearly laughs. The Captain is gonna get a hell of an ‘I told you so’ tonight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He reloads as he hears the canid start to search. It’s mock-snout snuffing through the dirt for his scent. His fingers are twitching again, wishing he knew where the hell his gun was. He’ll make a mad dash for Felix and get to safety, that’s all he needs to do. Sawyer will cover them, it’s fine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With a heavy sigh, he switches around the corner and is met immediately with a swift blow to his chest that knocks him back almost ten feet into the nearest rock. His breath evaporates from his lungs and his gun is thrown out of his hands as the creature winds back, tail raised in triumph. Max’s head is spinning, something </span>
  <em>
    <span>has </span>
  </em>
  <span>to be broken. Every breath he just sucks in pain and he can barely keep his eyes open long enough to understand where the hell he landed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Max!” He hears Felix shout through his haze and feels the drumbeat of the canids claws on the rocky dirt as it approaches. It’s now or never. With his ‘fight or flight’ stuck on the latter of the two, he raises his fists in a vain attempt to fight it off long enough for the other two crewmates to get there. When he finally manages to look up at the creature he’s frozen in place, all predilections on living through this are out the window as the tiny razor-sharp eyes are focused on nothing but tearing him apart. His ears are ringing, and the fog combined with his blurred vision makes the creature seem more monstrous in the cloak of night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Its gaping maw is dripping a steaming toxin as its sunken yellow eyes bore down on him, blood and viscera cover its chest where the vicar and Felix had shot it. Fucking hell. The fire is still burning in his veins, and tentatively, he raises his fists, prepared to just sock the damn thing in the mouth and die with some dignity. His chest is hurting with every breath he takes and his legs are wobbling beneath him. He’s disoriented, but he has faith in Sawyer at least, she’s not gonna let him die here fistfighting a fucking canid, right? </span>
</p><p>
  <span> It growls gutturally as it had done before and poised itself on its hind legs to strike. And just as the Vicar comes to terms with how his end will come, there’s a heavy, echoing </span>
  <em>
    <span>crack</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and the creature is crushed into the bed of rocks. Max, just drops his arms, letting out a strained breath. He guesses Sawyer will be the hero for tonight. A small price to pay for being alive. The adrenaline is still pumping through him, and with the immediate danger gone, he’s hit with a headrush. He lifts up his head as much as he can, expecting to thank the captain. But when he sees the light of her plasma knife, Sawyer is just jogging up to them through the late-night fog, and Felix is the one standing over the creature. He’s heaving air, his mask is gone, and a hammer is gripped tight in both his hands. The creature struggles a little on its side, obviously staggered with its caved-in skull and all. But Sawyer quickly drives her knife into its throat with an exhausted shout. It heaved its final breath, collapsing onto the dirt floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The creature’s blood is stained the whole way up Felix’s body, and the scowl he was sporting was something Max had never seen on the young man before. Wild and furious, and it had this allure that had the adrenaline flowing through his veins </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanting</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He’s stunned into silence by the sheer force of how hard his arousal hits him. And Felix looks over to him, dimly lit by the light of the red plasma of Sawyer’s knife. He takes a few steps forward, searching his face for any signs of injury. Max just stays shocked and silent as Felix stepped into his personal space, holding his gaze. “Uh, Boss? Is Vic supposed to be looking at me like--” he’s cut off when Maximillian yanks him down by the collar of his armor into an awkward, sideways kiss. The vicar somehow manages to get his tongue down Felix’s throat and the younger man just lets him, stunned into compliance. Max has to tilt his head down just a tiny bit to reach him, but when the hand that was firmly on the other man’s collar drifts up to gently tug Felix’s chin up, other man falls fully into the kiss and gets on his toes to allow the other man access.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They only part when on the verge of passing out, and Sawyer is left standing there, holding out her plasma rifle so that they could see anything in the first place.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fucking\ hell Max, I just told you to take it easy on him.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Day two of my Valentine's Day stuff is done! Leave a comment if you like, if you don't, or if you just want to call me a fake gamer girl.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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